Thoughts on Recycling... Design for Durability and Repairability

The Association of home Appliance Manufacturers says that Americans nor own some one billion appliances -- not counting radios and televisions -- double the figure ten years ago. Many of these products will be thrown away because some integral component -- difficult to locate or replace -- malfunctions. with standardization of parts, interchangeable modules, for
washers, refrigerators, television sets, small appliances, even automobiles, their useful lives could be extended.

If manufacturers were required to provide a ten-year guarantee on a product, would they design it for longer use? Or if they were required to take back the worn-out product via the efficient distribution system that delivered the new product, would they try to make it last longer?

Would planning and working together on interchangeable parts or environmentally desirable products and processes put companies in violation of the anti-trust laws, as some say? If so, perhaps a limited suspension of anti-trust laws should be considered, where collective industrial effort affecting the environment is needed-- on standardization of packaging and container size, for example.

While these changes will cost us more in our role of consumer, it should lessen our tax outlay for solid waste disposal.